My dad's house fire renovation

Hello friends,

My name is Colleen and I'm here to tell my dad's story in hopes to get as many donations possible to help rebuild his house interior after the house fire that occured on August 3rd, 2023.

My dad is currently a 73 year old, retired and a recently divorced man. He's very intelligent, wise, humerous and loves to talk. He is also a very precautious person and he cares for all his possessions as he has immense gratitude for all the things he has earned since he came to this country.

Seeing him in this current state has been heartbreaking as this is the saddest and loneliest i've ever seen him.

The story:

About a week ago, my dad was doing his usual daily routine. He woke up, made his bed, read a few news articles, showered, and started to prepare his lunch. He was in the making of one his favorite go-to meals, fried fish and rice, (my dad owned a restaurant at one point in Colombia so he is a very experienced cook) when suddenly he heard a knock at the door. He left the stove unattended for what he thought was going to be a few seconds, while he went to check who was at his front door. He opened the door and saw it was a salesman. When my dad realized the salesman was Colombian just like him he got excited to finally talk to someone that spoke his language. It's not often that my dad speaks to people so he was very intrigued by this. He was so intrigued that he stayed outside talking to the man longer than he had ever expected to talk to a salesperson for. My dad stayed at the door while the man spoke to him from the porch. After what felt like a few minutes, the salesman saw smoke coming from inside the home. He asked my dad "what is causing that smoke back there" and that is when my dad realized what had happened and he jumped into action.

My dad told me that it was so hot and there was so much fire and smoke that it felt like he was looking at hell. He knew that if he didn't do something quick he was going to lose his entire house to this fire. He did his best to reach the kitchen from the front of the house but when he realized it was too hot to even go past the dining room, he thought quickly and ran out the front door. He went around the house and got his hose from the back and ran in through the back door and stayed inside extinguishing the fire - ignoring the harmful smoke and gases expelling from the fire. Meanwhile the salesman was outside calling 911 as he saw this tragedy unfold. My dad was in so much shock and grief that he didn't have the heart to leave his home (my childhood home that i grew up in since i was 6 years old) that he saw turning to ashes before his eyes. He made sure that every last bit of fire was put out no matter the cost of his health.

When the fire department arrived, 4 men had to carry him out as he still didn't want to leave. He was covered in sut and his eyes were blood red. Luckily when the paramedics arrived and ran tests on him, they told him that his vital signs were normal.

That's when I recieved the phone call from my mom and sister that my dad's house caught on fire. I remember being in complete disbelief as i've always known my dad to be extremely careful. "it must've been a small fire" I thought to myself. When I arrived to the main road outside of my dad's street and I saw the traffic build up, my heart started to race. It started to feel more real the moment I finally reached my dad's street and saw over 10 fire trucks and even more cop cars all throughout. The whole street was closed off so I jumped out of my car and ran to my dad's house.

It felt like there were hundreds of policemen and firefighters all around me. Every single person in the neighborhood was outside trying to find out what had happened. That's when i finally saw my dad. The look on his face is something I will never forget. He kept asking the firemen if he could go inside to see the damage, but they kept telling him he had to wait until the air was clear. They said there was carbon monoxide and smoke still trapped inside the house.

When we were finally given the clearance to go inside is when we got to see real damage that occured. The entire kitchen was destroyed from top to bottom, the walls between the kitchen and the dining room is completely charred. We were told by the Red Cross that the house is uninhabitable.

Unfortunately my dad doesn't have home insurance since he can't afford it. The insurance costs approximately $5,000 and his house tax is $5,000. He only makes $19,000 a year from his pension and the money he receives from a room he has rented out in his home.

The funds will be used to rebuild my dads home from the ground up: redo the entire kitchen, knock down walls, renew the dry wall, patch up the cielings, change the a/c vents, replace the electrical wiring, replace all of the utilies in the kitchen, clean the home of all the sut, repaint the home, replace the blinds and more.